Eurozone Industry

Eurozone: Industry contracts in March

May 14, 2014

In March, industrial production contracted a seasonally-adjusted 0.3% over the previous month according to data released by Eurostat on 14 May. The drop, which contrasted the 0.2% expansion recorded in February, was in line with market expectations.

At a country level, Portugal (-4.8% month-on-month) and Greece (-1.9% mom) were the region’s worst performers. At the other end of the spectrum, Ireland (+5.6% mom) and Slovenia (+2.0% mom) recorded the best results. Output contracted in all the four major regional economies, with France recording the largest drop (-0.7% mom), followed by Spain (-0.6% mom), Italy (-0.5% mom) and Germany (-0.2% mom).

On an annual basis, industrial production contracted 0.1%, which contrasted the 1.7% expansion registered in February and marked the first decrease after six consecutive positive readings. Meanwhile, annual average growth in industrial production rose 0.1% in March, up from the flat reading recorded in the previous month.

FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast panelists see industrial production expanding 1.8% in 2014, which is down 0.2 percentage points from last month’s forecast. For 2015, panelists see industrial production growing 2.6%.

Author:Armando Ciccarelli, Head of Data Solutions

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